And They All Had Fun At The Ladybug Picnic!

One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve, Ladybugs came to the Ladybug's Picnic...

One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve, and they all played games at the Ladybug's Picnic...

The had twelve sacks so they ran sack races. They fell on their backs and they fell on their faces. The Ladybug twelve at the Ladybug Picnic...

They played jump rope but the rope it broke, so they just stood around telling knock knock jokes. The Ladybugs twelve at the Ladybug's Picnic...

One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve and they chatted away at the Ladybug's Picnic...

They talked about the high price of furniture and rugs, and fire insurance for Ladybugs. The Ladybug twelve at the Ladybug Picnic! 12!

Happy 1st Birthday My Beautiful Baby Girl!

Play With Your Food!

Tonight I pulled a beautiful, giant, juicy, purple/red/green tomato out of my garden! I've been attempting to grow organic veggies for a couple of years now with mixed success and I am finally starting to figure it out. Lesson 1 (thanks to Mike R.) : Beat your Tomato plants early on. Spare the rod; spoil the tomatoes! The first year I planted tomato plants, I just let them grow without any adjustments, and got zero tomatoes. Zero, zilch, none. Beautiful green fluffy 20 foot tall plants but none of the good stuff. The next year I followed the advice of my father in law and beat my tomato plants with a stick. Plants looked a little worse for the wear but they decided they were under attack, realized if they were going to reproduce they needed to do it pronto, and gave me lots of little tomato offspring. So, this year I once again beat my tomato plants and voila - gorgeous yummy tomatoes aplenty! Growing your own food, I think you might find, is amazing because you appreciate every little fruit or veggie that grows, survives insects, and turns into a beautiful piece of food that will nourish you and bring you joy. You nurture, and yes sometimes violate, your little veggie plants in the hopes that they will produce delicate little flowers that will become your hopeful bounty. Every night you peek into your garden to see what the day has produced. Most nights you find yet another zuchini squash and think darn it, this means I have to eat my veggies again tonight. But some nights, there is shining jewel lurking beneath all of the green foliage. And tonight I saw a beautiful ruby the size of my fist hanging beneath the tomato plant branches. After gently picking it and finding NO insect damage, I admired it for a few minutes, taking in the colors, the sun baked tomato fragrance, and the squishy yet meaty texture. Then I chopped it up and went to eat it but thought to myself that it was just too amazing a tomato to just drop down the hatch. So then I decided to turn it into something creative and artful-ish. See above Tomato spelled like Tomato. Afterwards, I decided it would then be ok to drop it down the hatch but no! I remembered I had real buffalo milk mozerella. Or if you are Giada D - muzureyla (so annoying). After scoffing at that all too perfect food network star, I gently mixed my tomato with creamy/salty fresh cheese, balsalmic vinegar, and olive oil. And then I gobbled it up. As it turned out, I was able to savor the tomato with my eyes, but it was too yummy not to gobble it down faster than the speed of light ;0

Diaper Duty

Happy Cloth Diaper Tree!

Before I had a baby, I swore up and down that I would never use disposable diapers because I didn't want to be one of those people that filled up the landfills with their plastic wrapped baby waste. And then, well, I had a baby and the fancy G diapers that I had received didn't fit my little newborn so we had to use disposables. And oh the JOY of disposables! No more leaking of piddle & poo! No more rinsing, and soaking, and dealing with stains, and washing, and drying and folding! Of course this blog is about the beauty of cloth diapers but I have to be honest about the process ;) Anyways, it was just too easy to take a dirty diaper and throw it in the convenient plastic in plastic in plastic diaper genie. The guilt was immense but so was the satisfaction with the ease of diapering! And so we continued with our newborn disposables with the excuse that the cloth dipes didn't fit yet. But then...oh the horror...we bought the next size up of disposables. GASP! I hated the cloth G Diapers with a passion. They leaked and cut into Mo's fragile baby hips and thighs and made me miserable so I gave up on them. More than once we went to visit the Hollemans' in G diapers and ended up borrowing little boy clothes to get home in. Mo rocked little boy clothes but that is beside the point ;) So, once again in disposables, I decided to make myself feel better by giving all different cloth diapers a chance and ordered the $10 cloth diaper trial through Jillians Drawers and I cannot say enough good things about Jillians Drawers. For $10 they sent us every size Small cloth diaper you could possibly imagine. Cotton ones, wool ones, fleece ones, snappy ones, velcrow ones, hippie ones, Chinese ones, Indian ones and in every color imaginable! It was so fun trying out all the fuzzibuns, thirsties, tinklebottoms (ok I made the last one up) to see what worked with Mo's buns ;) We learned that all babies aren't made alike and different diapers fit different kiddos. And it's funny because every single cloth diaper failed us until, on our last desperate attempt, we tried the Thirsties. And lo and behold, they worked fabulously. No more leaks and as easy to put on and take off as disposables! So you say, this is where the Rogges hugged mother earth and bought a lifetime supply of cloth diapers. No, dear friends, the Rogges cheaped out and bought the next size up of disposables (we are now in size 3s if you're keeping track). GASP! It wasn't because they weren't lovely diapers and it wasn't because we didn't want to switch. It was because we were going to have to buy size Small cloth diapers that would only last about another month and it was too much of an investment for such a short amount of time. So, we decided to wait until her little baby booty got a little bigger to invest in the next size up of cloth diapers. And, once baby got some back, we did just that :) And I do love the Thirsties almost as much as disposables. I'm sorry but disposables are going to be easier no matter what. But I found little diaper liners that you can lift out of the diaper when you find poo so you don't have to deal with poo all over the cloth diapers which makes life 100 times easier. And we discovered that Borax gets rid of the stale urine smell that almost made me give up on my cloth diapering dreams once more. Yes, I have more laundry but I'm glad we are in cloth because I no longer feel like I'm giving the Earth the finger, the diapers fit Molly like a dream, they don't leak, and they're pretty (which, let's face it, is a plus). :) So, the moral of my story is...don't panic if you're in disposables because babies are difficult enough without processing pee & poo stained fleece but I do highly recommend a cloth diaper trial because it is fun and at the end you just might find that you love cloth diapers (well, love them as much as you can considering they aren't disposable)! Happy diapering!

Mothers Day Mantra

Mothers Day Mantra

If I'd never had a baby

I could go about my life

Not thinking like a mother

Of other people's strife

If I'd never had a baby

I could sleep in come the morn

But I'd miss out on the joyful face

I've seen since she was born

There's much more love

Inside my heart

Than I ever thought could be

It tears right through my arteries

At times my heart skips beats

I'm glad I had a baby

When her face lights up the room

Because she sees me coming

With potatoes and a spoon

I play with her down on the floor

Such joyful happy moments

Then rock her down so peacefully

Soft as a gentle current

There's much more love

Inside my heart

Than I ever thought could be

It tears right through my arteries

At times my heart skips beats

The Drool That Binds Us

Blue-beard the Drooler!

Woo! "Taco Dirty Spinach Laundry!" (see below

for clarification)

On the amazing similarities between dogs and human babies.

First of all, I'd like to thank all the dogs in my life who prepared me for being a mother to a baby human. So far, the only real difference between having dogs and having a human baby, is that the dogs snooze in a barred cage thing with a top and babies snooze in a barred cage thing without a top. The list that follows details the uncanny similarities between the two creatures.

1. Human babies and dogs drool - A LOT. And it's not like the "fall asleep with your mouth open cutsie haha pillow drool." It's nasty, sticky, doesn't disappear after it falls on inanimate objects drool. It is drool that could literally be used instead of super glue. And because of this insane drool, most people cautiously pat babies on the top of their heads in the same way you cautiously pat nasty drool mongering dogs on the top of the head. "Awww, you're cute but ICK don't touch me!"

2. Human babies gnaw on anything they can get their mouths around in the same way labradors gnaw on anything they can get their mouths around (when you're not looking). I'm sure if you left a baby in a room alone with your retainer and your cell phone, they'd magically disappear by the time you returned. And then there you'd be, waiting with a stick for every last piece of that retainer to magically reappear.

3. Both dogs and babies love to watch you talk but they have no clue what you are saying. You could easily swap "who's the cutest little baby/doggie ever?" with "Taco Dirty Spinach Laundry?" and as long as you used the same tone of voice they would be equally pleased. Babies even do the sideways questioning dog head move. Both equally cute. And both try to mimic what you say (well if you've ever owned a mouthy moose named Bella) but end up saying "roo roooo roooooo!" with increasing loudness, ferocity and of course drooliness.

4. Both dogs and babies love to tear, shred, and destroy paper. Why? I do not know. They have a vendetta against post-processed trees. But type in "dog tears up paper" and "baby tears up paper" on youtube and peruse said subject...Yep, now you're saying the only difference is a little fur huh?

5. Both dogs and babies have separation anxiety. Seriously, I'm thinking about hiring Cesar Millan for Molly. You leave a dog in a crate and walk away and they freak out - they yelp/scream/coyote howl and desperately try to claw their way to freedom and back to you. Babies = no difference (except insert the word crib in crate's place).

The list could go on forever to include such topics as walk/squeaky thing/mud/food enthusiasts, the amazingly constant handling of poo, and the possession of overly excited crazy legs. We dearly love both dogs and babies, play smoochie face/belly rub with both. But, although both are great, I really hope my baby girl grows out of the drooly, chewie, overly dependent labrador stage and learns to walk, talk, poo independently and heaven forbid, figure out her multiplication tables.

Oh, and to transition into the next blog subject - there is one MAJOR difference between babies and dogs. Dogs have no problem falling asleep on their own, in any place anywhere, and in any position when they are sleepy (see Bella blog for proof). Whereas Molly fussy grumpy pants...